Image: Leg 5 arrivals in Aarhus, Denmark. 1th Hour Racing have crossed the finish line to win Leg 5 and become the new leader in the overall standings. Arrival : 29/05/2023 02:56:49 UTC Race time : 7d 08h 41min 49s. © Sailing Energy / The Ocean Race

Team Holcim-PRB hold on for second place, with Team Malizia finishing a close third

Skipper Charlie Enright's smile was as bright as the early morning sun in Aarhus, Denmark on Monday morning as he led his 11th Hour Racing Team to a first place finish in leg 5 of The Ocean Race. 

The win was doubly important; the transatlantic race is a double-points scoring leg and with the win, 11th Hour Racing Team has climbed to the top of the overall leaderboard for the first time. 

"It's a good feeling to be at the top of the table," admitted Enright when he finally stepped ashore. "It's more important to be on top in July than it is now, but this is a step in the right direction. 

"We've been trying to make incremental improvements in every area of the campaign," he said when asked how the team has won the last two legs. "We've done that on board the boat, we've done that on the technical side, and the logistics side as well as we set ourselves up for success everywhere in the team."

"We went into this leg knowing that we needed to be aggressive and we  needed to have a good result in this leg to stand a chance in the race," added navigator Simon 'SiFi' Fisher. "So we tried to sail aggressively and we sailed our own race. I am very happy to say it worked out nicely - everybody did a tremendous job."

Nearly 4 hours after 11th Hour Racing Team won the leg, Team Holcim-PRB took a hard-earned second place finish, holding off Team Malizia who finished just five minutes behind. 

"I think we've been sailing fast and as well as the others," Escoffier said. "We had a few issues - at the beginning we had to earn some trust in our (new) mast and then we broke the 24-hour record, but it wasn't quite enough. 

“The new IMOCAs are quite extreme - fast but not very comfortable. I can tell you that doing 640 miles in 24-hours is definitely not comfortable!"

“But by finishing in second place, we still have it in our hands to win The Ocean Race."

For Team Malizia, the third place finish drops them further behind than they would like on the overall leaderboard, but co-skipper Will Harris was defiant and confident when asked if they could still win the race. 

"Of course we can. For sure, definitely. Anything can happen in this race. You have to keep believeing all the way to the finish... there is plenty to fight for still," he said.

"We came so close to catching up to Holcim-PRB at the end there. Unfortunately we didn't quite get the result that we wanted. We really wanted to get a few more points than that."

Biotherm remains on the race course, nearing the top of Scotland, and with over 750 nautical miles to go to the finish. The team is sailing slowly, protecting the mast, and won't be in Aarhus until the end of the week.  

Since 1973, The Ocean Race has provided the ultimate test of a team and a human adventure like no other. For nearly 50 years, it has kept an almost mythical hold over some of the greatest sailors and been the proving ground for the legends of our sport.

The 14th edition of The Ocean Race started from Alicante, Spain on January 15th 2023, and will finish in Genova, the Grand Finale, in Italy early in the summer of 2023. The race visits nine iconic cities around the globe over a six-month period (Alicante, Spain - Cabo Verde - Cape Town, South Africa - Itajaí, Brazil - Newport, RI, USA - Aarhus, Denmark - Kiel Fly-By, Germany - The Hague, the Netherlands - Genova, Italy) and features a leg with the longest racing distance in the 50-year history of the event - a 12,750 nautical mile, one-month marathon from Cape Town, South Africa to Itajaí, Brazil. The IMOCA fleet of mixed crews will pass all three great southern Capes - Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn - non-stop, for the first time.

Along with five confirmed foiling IMOCA teams racing around the world, six one-design VO65 boats will race on three legs with an option to compete for a new trophy within The Ocean Race called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup.

 
Sustainability in The Ocean Race

We have a proven commitment to sustainability, and with the support and collaboration of 11th Hour Racing, Founding Partner of the Race Sustainability Programme and Premier Partner of The Ocean Race, we are inspiring action and creating tangible outcomes.

Building upon our award-winning legacy in sustainability, our innovative Racing With Purpose programme is acting as a catalyst for positive change and accelerating the application of innovative solutions to help restore ocean health.